New Beginnings
by jjhampton
Summary: A new love, a new evil, and a new life. Kouga and Kagome begin a new adventure with the ones they love and have come to care for, but how will they protect them from an evil older than the beginning.


Disclaimer: This will go with this chapter and everyone that follows. I do not own Inuyasha, I do however own this fanfiction. Thank-you much.

Night had settled in on the homes of Kaede's village, allowing the dim light from the residual camp fires to cast an eerie glow on its surroundings. A young women looked on as a light fall wind blew through her raven hair. She watched as that cool breeze ran through the trees, raining down the dying leaves. Once landed, they were again gathered and twirled by the wind once more. She thought as if Mother Nature was performing an extravagant ballet and she was the grand audience. It was a beautiful sight, and months ago watching something so graceful would lighten her heart and bring a smile to her face.

She leaned against the outside of the hut and slowly slid down to the wooden planks of the porch. She pulled her knees up to her chest and leaned back into the outer wall. She thought back to the reason she was out this night. The same reason she went out every night for the past six months. 'Inuyasha' she thought sadly 'and Kikyo.' She was brought from her thoughts as something warm and wet trailed down her cheek and onto her white tank top. She brought her hands to her face and realized, to her horror, that she was again crying. 'When did I start doing this without even knowing?' she wondered. She slowly brought her hands back into her vision and stared at the tears that now stained her pale fingertips. Quickly balling her hands into fists she closed her eyes and shook her head. "Not tonight" she whispered through gritted teeth. "Not tonight!"

She leaned forward and pulled her shoes to her feet, placing each delicate foot into its coinciding shoe. She tied the laces and stood up, grabbing her light jacket on her assent. She stepped down from the porch onto the cold ground of night and started on her solitary journey into the forest.

Not long after she entered the bare edge of the forest she began to feel a familiar sensation puling at her. She closed her eyes and pushed out her senses, searching for that which was calling to her. She was searching for that beautiful light, no, that was a lie. She was searching for the light's carrier, its temporary protector until it came to be her own once again. His light was something to be seen, no she felt it. She could feel the light, she could feel him. 'Jewel shards!' She thought with a smile. 'He's here with me.'

He stood on a limb, high above the forest floor. He crossed his arms over his chest, as was his usual stance, and leaned back against the rough bark of the tree. Tilting his head up slightly and closing his eyes, he waited. He knew it was only a matter of time until she would search him out. Mere minutes went by until he felt the prickles of her enhanced power flow through his body. He smiled as he registered the familiar sensation in his left leg, his right leg, and finally coming to a stop in his right arm. 'She's searching me out' he thought proudly 'and now it's time I search for her.' He leapt down from his perch to the forest floor and began searching for her scent. He inhaled deeply and let her sweet scent wash over him. He gently padded forward, following her scent, when he was suddenly hit by another familiar scent. It twisted and melded with her scent, tainting its beauty with something he could only discern as foul. It changed her scent into something dark and he loathed it. Her scent alone was as good to him as the sun. If allowed he would simply bask in its beauty, letting it fill his lungs and warm his demon heart. It was as if it gave him his very life and this foul tainted scent would bring his demise. He wondered how long it would take something this tainted to reach her pure heart and from there taint her soul.

The shards within his very flesh cried out to her, they too knew she was grieving. 'Did they know she was hurting?' He wondered as he looked down to the shard in his arm. 'No,' he dismissed the thought. 'They are simply stone fragments, nothing more. They couldn't possibly know of a mortals distress,' he thought. 'Or could they?' He had often wondered if the most powerful of her emotions cold possibly wake the dormant souls lost within those stone fragments. If her anger or fear would turn them dark and in turn, her joy and sense of peace make them pure. He looked down at his shard once again. He was somewhat relieved that even under her dire stress, the shards he carried remained as pure as she was. He continued to watch as the shards colors flared from hot white to pink then back again. They were speaking to him, telling of their protectors distress and even of her pain.

He again padded forward, making a slow pace behind her. "Baka!" He whispered through gritted teeth, baring his fangs in frustration. Another spike in her scent assaulted his mind. "How could he be such a fool? To leave the plain of the living for the grave of the undead? To leave the present for a past that was never meant to be fulfilled? Does he not realize he cannot have both?" 'What this fool does is no longer a concern. It matters not to me' he thought vehemently. He vowed that he would put a stop to the sorrow. That he would end the pain regardless of his own personal cost. 'I will be there from the start all through the end.' He had made up his mind. 'Tonight I come out of the shadows, I'm tired of being a silent protector from afar.' "Tonight, I will go to you." He whispered and hoped the wind would carry the message to her.

He sprinted forward until she was within his range of vision, then slowed his gait to a walk. She was nearing her usual sanctuary, the legendary hot springs that flowed from the base of a massive tree. Many had went in search for its beauty, but seldom few had come across it. It was not to be found by those who would taint it, hence the barrier that was held around its entirety. He knew how she had found it. The spirit of the woods had looked into her heart and, finding no malice in her existence, allowed her passage. He did wonder, however, why he was allowed entry to such a place. He had done many wrongs in his life, hurting demons and humans alike. He thought that alone should have been enough to keep him from this place and more than enough to keep him from the lovely maiden now walking to the mouth of the spring.

He watched as she sat down in the grass near the springs, idly humming to herself. She was sitting up, curled into a tight ball while her arms were intertwined around her raised knees. From where he was watching it looked like a smirk crossed her face. She through her hands up and exclaimed "Why not!" And that was all that was said as she began loosening the laces of her shoes. She slipped her feet from the confines of her shoes and began pulling at her socks. He turned and ducked behind a bush as a flush crept across his cheeks. 'She is going to bathe' he thought 'knowing I'm standing here.' Before his blush could even fade he heard a subtle splash in the water behind him, then another, followed by an almost silent laugh. 'What is going on over there?' He had to find out. 'What if something had gotten in there with her, and that laugh.' This didn't make sense to him. He slowly turned his head, giving his peripheral vision time to catch anything before he saw too much. He jerked his head to look at her then back forward, brows furrowed, then back again. He let out a sigh and rolled his eyes. There she sat, feet in the water, splashing lightly. 'I was worried for nothing.' He shook his head and smiled. 'What have you done to me?'

He quietly laughed at his situation. Esteemed demon, ruler of the wolf demon clan, and Prince of the Northern Lands had fallen so pathetically in love with a mortal, that he didn't know where up was. He would sacrifice himself for her, would gladly lay his very life down at her feet if she only asked. She wouldn't do that, he knew her too well, she would rather give her life than to take one that meant no harm. She would never ask him of such things, she rarely asked for help and when she did it was for the sake of another. No, she would never want to need him but, 'Just in case' he thought. 'I'll be here waiting.'

He was startled back to reality by the deafening silence of the forest. 'She was just laughing' he thought. He turned to look at her again. She was no longer splashing in the spring, nor did she have that serene look gracing her features. Instead she was leaned back onto her palms, eyes turned to the sky. Her long hair barely grazed the grass below. He stood there, a lack of words to her silent beauty. It was breathtaking the way the moon highlighted her eyes, making them sparkle. She allowed a sigh to escape her slightly parted lips as time seemed to stop for him. 'So beautiful.' He thought. "Absolutely beautiful." He said aloud.

He couldn't help himself and slowly walked toward her. He was drawn to her, he always had been, it was her soul calling to out to his. He had heard the elders of his tribe speak of such things, it was what the wolf demons lived for, the day they felt the call of their soul mate. He continued walking toward her, not daring to speak for he was afraid she would turn to dust and vanish in his hands. He wasn't meant to have such a gentle creature, but he could not ignore the pull of her soul.

He walked steady on until he was a mere few feet from where she peacefully resided. Then he saw a tear escape, just one, but that was enough. He took a deep breath to steady himself and slowly released it. "Kagome." He whispered, barely audible to his own ears. 'What am I so worried about? It's not like she didn't know I was here every night.' He tried again. "Kagome." She turned and looked up at him with a smile. He could still see the trail left from her tear as the moonlight danced across her cheek. "Can I sit here?" He asked almost timidly, looking down at the ground beside her. She nodded her approval and he sat down in the grass.

"What is it your doing there?" He asked nodding toward her feet. "Oh, this?" She asked, raising one delicate foot for emphasis. "It's a way to relax in my time. We even have special buildings called spas that people go to. To me though, this is more soothing."

"Hmm…" He mumbled. He removed the cream colored cotton wrapping from his feet and sat them aside. He was just about to dip his feet in when she stopped him.

"You don't want to get those wet do you?" He looked over and realized that she had rolled up the cuffs of her jeans to her knees to keep them dry. He looked down at his own legs and decided it would e best to keep his furs dry as well. Once the furs were removed, he sat them off to the side with his wrappings and slid his feet into the spring. He leaned back on his palms mimicking Kagome's form, but instead of watching the stars he was watching her. He was trying to think of something, anything to say to her when suddenly she spoke.

"I've missed you." She said, her eyes never leaving the stars. He put his large clawed hand over her much smaller delicate one, lightly cupping it. She looked down to their joined hands and them up to him.

"Kagome." His tongue slid out to moisten his lips. "I've missed you too."

He wanted terribly just to be able to pull her into his arms, but he knew that was not what she wanted nor what she needed from him. He knew this was going to be a long difficult road she would travel and hopefully she would allow him to walk along beside her.

He looked up to the sky and spoke again. "When will you and your group be traveling through my lands again?"

She thought on his question awhile before asking one of her own. "Your lands? I thought you were only leader of the wolf tribe in the North."

He looked over at her. She was confused, he could smell it on her. "No, Kagome, I'm Prince of the Northern Lands. My mother and father are the Lord and Lady of the North. They even fought with the late Lord of the Western Lands. The Inu no Tashio. I believe that what they called him."

"Fought with him? When? Against who?" She knew who the Inu no Tashio was, Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha's father, but Myoga had never said anything about him joining with another Lord.

"Oh, it was over two hundred and fifty years ago. I think even Sesshoumaru was still a pup when it happened. The who I really don't know. Father would tell stories of a huge evil creature that plagued the lands not but fifty years after he became Lord. He said it took the four Lords to just silence him. He said that if it were to ever reappear that the four new Lords would have to battle it. The ones that fought with it were lucky to live, actually the Eastern Kitsune Lord lost his tail in the battle. He barely escaped with his life. Father said if it hadn't been for the Southern Bear Lord's brute strength they might not have came out on the winning end." He hoped that would straighten things out a bit for her. She was looking at him like a little girl listening to her daddy tell a war hero story. He smiled and asked his question again. "So, like I was saying, when will you be headed through there?"

"I really don't know Kouga. There hasn't been a lot of demon activity through there, at least not where the shards are involved. We haven't had much reason to head that way, since we're no longer tracking Naraku, Inuyasha's prime goal is getting what's left of the shards. There are so many unaccounted for we don't even know where to start." She sighed thinking of how tedious it was going to be to find the shards. It had already been two years. Two years of tracking Naraku, two years of hunting shards, two years of unrequited love, and two years of being second.

"You can't be someone you never were meant to be." He told her as if reading her thoughts. "Your genuine Kagome." She smiled at that and tilted her chin back up to watch the clouds swirl up above her. Hiding the stars and then letting them shine brightly again.

As the night continued on, just the priestess and her wolf Prince, the temperature began to drop. She shivered a bit, regardless of how warm the springs were it made no difference to her exposed upper calf. She pulled her legs out of the spring and shook her feet of the excess water. She reached into her jacket pocket for her handkerchief and dabbed away the light mist of water that was left. She handed it too Kouga, who took it from her, looked at it, shrugged his shoulders and dried his calves and feet as well. As he did that she donned her earlier discarded socks and shoes and unrolled her jeans. She pulled her knees to her chest and shivered against the cold. She berated for being foolish enough to leave her time without packing the proper attire for the cool fall season. Kouga noticed her slight shiver and allowed a scowl to mare his face. 'Not while I'm around.' He thought. He slid his arms around her back and placed his hand on her hip to pull her to him.

"You should dress warmer Kagome." He told her. "I don't want you becoming ill." He continued pulling her to him until she was flush against his side. She turned her head and sneezed into the back of her hand. "Are you becoming ill?" He asked her in a worried tone.

"No, I'm fine." He looked at her skeptically. She looked up to his eyes. "Really, I'm ok." He raised a brow at her, but decided to take her word. He could smell no start of sickness in her scent so he figured she was ok.

They sat in silence for what seemed like hours when she again broke the silence. "I really should be getting back Kouga. Inuyasha has heard rumors of shards in the West and he'll want to start out early." She told him as she began to rise.

"Wait!" He really didn't mean to sound so pleading. "I mean.." he started, "do you think.." He couldn't gather his words. "What I'm trying to say is…" She cut him short.

"Sunrise." She stated. "Ok," was his only reply. She sat down again beside him as he pulled her to his side again.

'This is perfect.' He thought. "Absolutely perfect." He whispered into the raven hair of the now slumbering priestess. "No wonder you wanted to leave." He spoke softly to the beautiful woman asleep on his chest. "You were exhausted from all this weren't you." As if she heard him she mumbled nonsense into his armored chest. He gave a small smile to that. "I will protect you, you will see." He let her lean into him as she slept, keeping a continued guard on her. 'Nothing else will hurt her.'

Hours passed by without a hitch. He yawned, letting his canine tongue roll out like his lesser wolf counterparts, fangs protruding from his lips during his stretch. He rubbed his eyes as the sun began it's morning in Japan. He watched as the colors of the morning met the mountains and cascaded to the heavens in arrays of purples, reds, and oranges. He had awoke every morning as a pup to watch the sunrise with his mother. It meant a new day and new beginnings. This day would be a lonely day though. He knew he had to wake her and escort her back to her group. He also knew that that meant he wouldn't see her for days because they were traveling. He would have gladly followed her, but he had a much larger tribe to watch over and lead. He had much to learn as well, his parents rule of the North was ending. They would be moving to the land of their forefathers soon and it would be his responsibility to take the rule from there. Hw also knew all that responsibility would be his and his alone since he had not taken a mate to share the lands with. He sighed heavily as he looked down at the still slumbering woman and lightly shook her. She slowly opened her eyes and stretched, somewhat mimicking his earlier actions. She looked up at him through heavy eyelids. "It's time isn't it?" She asked him.

"Yes," he responded, "are you ready?"

Please give any and all comments. If you see a mistake, regardless of how small, please let me know and I will fix it. I would hate for someone to have to read and reread my mistakes. Thanks, jjhampton.


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